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Cowra Weekend
What a great weekend! Thirty seven members left Parramatta early on Saturday morning for Cowra about four hours drive, west of Sydney. What a fascinating place, it turned out to be, situated in the Lachlan River Valley it is famous for its wineries and war time history. The Cowra Prisoner of War (POW) campsite was the site of a mass breakout of over 1,100 Japanese during World War II.
 After lunch, we were joined by our guide who took us on tour of Cowra and showed us some of the highlights, including the Australian War Peace Bell and the Cowra War Cemetery before travelling to Iandra Castle, an awe-inspring construction, built at the turn of the century.  We were free to wander the castle and marvel at the granduer and structure of the building and we learnt a little of the history and of the people who settled the area.
After a full day of exploring, we were looking forward to dinner and a good night's rest and I think we all agreed, the dinner was excellent and the motel was very comfortable.
 After breakfast we set off to visit the Cowra Fun Museum, what a surprise this turned out to be! The displays are absolutely phenomenal, things you wouldn't expect to see, war rail and rural memorabilia housed in a two acre covered complex.   We all arrived home safely after a lovely weekend.
Special thanks to Margaret from everyone, for all the work in organising this trip.
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Oktoberfest
 With a six piece OOM-PAH Band, The Deutsche Alpine Folk Dancers, Nick Bavarell on piano accordion, Angela Hayden who could certainly yodell and a wonderful juggler it was entertainment that kept us all fascinated. Toni’s comedy send ups of Marlena Deitrich and Schultz from Hogans Heros, were just so incredible and one of the best parts of the show and had everyone laughing.
A great night out! National Maritime Museum John Withers did an excellent tour for members. Many thanks John, your knowledge on things nautical is very much appreciated. Terry and Sandra Myers sent me the following comments … Today I had the pleasure of visiting the National Maritime Museum with some of our fellow members and with NSA Parramatta member John Withers as our personal guide. Would you please convey to John Withers our very sincere appreciation for a job well done - he gave us most of the day and was most interesting (indeed, fascinating with his knowledge and information). We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, learned a lot about the Navy and really appreciated John's "insider's" view of life aboard a Daring Class destroyer such as HMAS Vampire, although we aren't rushing to volunteer for the submarine service following our visit to the submarine there. NRMA Careflight Dinner
Twenty four members and friends met at the NRMA Careflight base at Westmead to enjoy a lovely dinner, together with lots of interesting facts on the Careflight organisation, courtesy of John Ebbott, their P.R. information expert.
 This was the Parramatta branch's second visit and provided different aspects to those experienced last year. All agreed it was a very worthwhile, informative outing. Thanks Margaret for all the hard work organising this, everyone enjoyed the evening. |